98 Years Young
by Tyranusfan
Summary: It's been a long road, but maybe Steve and Bucky have finally made it. Part 12 and Finale of "The Search for Bucky Barnes." Rated T to be safe.
_Part 12 of "The Search for Bucky Barnes."_

 _Set after the earlier pieces in this series: "Visiting Hours," "Breaking the Leash," "Chasing Ghosts Part I," "Inseparable," "168 hours," "Realists," "Chasing Ghosts, Part II," "Sparring," and "I'll Be Home for Christmas," "Just One More Dance" and "Close to Home."_

 _Takes place about three months after "Close to Home."_

 _Special thanks to geminigrl11. I own nothing._

 _Here we are, the last installment of The Search for Bucky Barnes. I think we found him! It's been a great ride guys. Thanks for reading!_

 **98 Years Young**

 _26 Months After the Fall of S.H.I.E.L.D._

 _Avengers Tower_

 _New York City_

 _July 4, 2016_

"I just can't figure out what he's up to," Steve muttered grimly.

Sam glanced at him. "Why can't you trust anybody?"

"I trust plenty of people," Steve shot back. "But when Tony suddenly switches movie night to my birthday, alarm bells start going off in my head."

Steve and Sam sat midway down the last row of seats in the Tower's theater, which rivaled some of the cinemas that Steve had visited back in the forties in size and definitely in comfort. Thor and Jane sat in the front row with Darcy and Ian, chatting quietly. Bruce sat three seats to the left of Sam, quietly cleaning his glasses. Rhodey and Pepper were in the leftmost seats of the middle row, talking with Tony, who was suspiciously avoiding direct eye contact with Steve.

He was definitely up to something.

Steve glanced at the empty seat on his right, trying to look nonchalant as he scanned the room again.

"He's coming," Sam said. "Stop worrying."

"I'm not worried," Steve said, with what he hoped was a confident tone. Bucky still wasn't back from Lithuania. He hadn't heard anything out of him or Natasha since they left the safehouse three days before.

"He wouldn't miss this, you know that."

Steve frowned at Sam. "I said I wasn't worried!"

"Terrible liar," Natasha said as she entered through the rear entrance to the theater. "We had to make a stop."

"I heard you worrying from the landing pad," Bucky's voice whispered in his right ear. Steve flinched, and turned in time to see Barnes hop over the chair back and plop into the seat next to him. He dropped his duffel in the next seat.

"I really wish you'd stop doing that," Steve grumbled.

Barnes smiled faintly with a gleam of mischief in his eyes. "Can't. It's too much fun making you jump."

Steve rolled his eyes, but didn't comment on that any further. It only encouraged Bucky's demonic side. "How'd it go?"

Barnes shrugged, metal shoulder whirring softly with the motion. "Nothing to write home about."

That was a typical bit of understatement. Steve knew why Bucky had flown to Europe. He simply arched an eyebrow and waited.

Finally Barnes relented. "Nikolai wasn't happy to see me when I turned up in his flat."

Nikolai Roshenko was one of HYDRA's most notorious computer hackers. He'd gone to ground after Dr. Whitehall was killed in Puerto Rico, but Natasha had tracked him to a small apartment in Lithuania.

"And how was he after?" Steve asked.

"Even less happy," Bucky replied with a smirk. He lowered his voice. "But, it paid off. He can get us to Zola."

"I wish I'd gone with you."

Barnes shrugged. "You had that Army thing. Oh, I almost forgot..." He reached into his bag and pulled out a small box liberally covered with ragged-edged red, white and blue foil. "On the way back we stopped in London and I got your birthday present."

Steve laughed, looking for a place to pull at the haphazard wrapping. "Thanks, Buck."

Bucky waggled his Vibranium fingers. "Yeah, it does a lot of things well, but folding thin paper isn't one of them."

"I think you did fine," Steve said with amusement, finally finding a place that wasn't taped down to get his fingernail under.

Barnes' metal hand came down over Steve's. "Open it later, okay?"

Steve frowned at the suddenly serious look on his friend's face. He narrowed his eyes. "It's not another topless girl in a snow globe, is it?"

Bucky scoffed. "After you wasted the last one? No, it isn't. Just...open it later."

"Okay," Steve said uncertainly, unsure of what to make of the change in mood.

Any further conversation was cut off when Tony appeared at the front of the room. JARVIS considerately dimmed the background lights so that Stark was illuminated. "All right, now that we're all here—" Tony stopped, scanning the room. "Wait, where's Barton?"

Sam pointed skyward. "One o'clock high."

Everyone followed Sam's finger. Clint was reclined comfortably across one of the rafters in the open ceiling. "Right here, Stark."

"Wanna come down and join the rest of us?" Tony asked.

"Nah. I'm good."

" _Sir, the refreshments have arrived_ ," JARVIS announced.

Dum-E appeared from one of the doorways near the projection screen, towing an enormous cart loaded with popcorn, candy, cupcakes and various drinks, all surrounding a three-layer birthday cake, in suitably gaudy red white and blue livery. The cake was topped with one of the Captain America figurines that had appeared after the Battle of New York. It was encased in a clear block, painted to look like ice.

Because, of course it was. Steve sighed but couldn't help but smile. Sousa's _Stars and Stripes Forever_ came blasting out of the room's sound system as the food paraded in. Dum-E came to a stop along the left wall of the room.

"Make a hole!" Barton cried when he spied the treats. He fast-roped down from the ceiling and landed gracefully in the empty seat next to Natasha.

Thor was equally enthusiastic. "Yes! Bring on the popped corn!"

Tony began to speak, using his showman's voice. "As you know, today is a very special day. Ninety-eight long, _long_ years ago, what was no doubt a very boring, prudish stork delivered one bouncing baby Capsicle—"

Clint, who was already unwrapping a blue cupcake, interrupted. "He wasn't _born_ frozen, Tony."

"Capsicle-in-waiting, then," Tony amended. "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Steve Rogers."

JARVIS brightened the light over Steve's seat as his friends all applauded. Steve blushed slightly at the attention. "Thanks guys."

"What movie are we watching?" Sam called out.

"Yeah, what's with the big production, Tony?" Rhodey added. Clearly everyone had their suspicions about Stark's plans.

Tony's smile turned into a sly grin. "All right. Tonight, one night only! Direct from the National Archives..."

Steve's blood ran cold. "Oh no..."

The room darkened as the screen came to life. Tony slid aside toward the seats. "I give you: Captain America!"

"No, no, no, Tony you said you'd never show these!" Steve protested.

"Special occasion."

"How'd you even get your hands on them?"

"Iron Man _may_ have visited the curator's daughter at school for Show and Tell."

"Tony—"

" _Silence_! The movie begins!" Thor commanded. He was already cramming a massive handful of popcorn into his mouth.

Steve sat back with a defeated groan. He glanced at Bucky, who was studiously avoiding eye contact. Steve glared. "This was your idea, wasn't it?"

Bucky appeared surprised. "Who me? I've been in Europe for a month."

Rolling the answer over in his mind, Steve arched an eyebrow. "That's not a 'no,' Bucky."

"Shh, the movie's starting Steve."

The rousing tune of "The Star-Spangled Man" cranked up as the first film flickered to life on the screen. The Smithsonian had only shown highlights, but this reel seemed to have all his movies, complete and in chronological order. The overblown music scores and Walter Huston's narration amused his friends, and after a few minutes, Steve managed to get past the embarrassment and enjoy himself. He'd never seen them all back to back, and was surprised how serialized they actually were. Somewhat inaccurate in the way Cap appeared to travel around the globe in the space of a few minutes, but fun nonetheless.

He even found himself providing commentary on the sillier ones. From the aggravating papier-mâché tank that kept blowing over when the fans cranked up the wind, to the background soldier who'd walked right off the edge of the treadmill during the marching scene three times.

The melodramatic "combat" scenes had the battle-hardened Avengers chuckling, but the repetitive endings where Steve reminded the audience to buy war bonds had them in stitches, parroting the words along with him.

Soon enough, all twelve films ran their course, and the video moved on to archival footage that the Smithsonian had used in various places around their exhibit. Howard Stark featured in most of the interviews, but one postwar interview with Colonel Phillips about Steve's legacy was surprising. The normally stern colonel actually seemed misty-eyed in places. It was the most emotional he or Bucky had ever seen their old C.O.

"Guess he did like us," Bucky whispered, looking mildly surprised.

The next segment was a pair of interviews with Peggy, one from 1946, and the other the one that played in the museum, from 1953. Steve's heart sank. Peggy's death still felt like an open wound...and seeing her in her prime...

He peripherally noticed that the room had grown quiet around him.

" _Stark_ ," Bucky hissed.

"Tony, maybe we should..." Bruce offered softly.

Tony, for his part, appeared chagrined. "Right. Skip ahead, J."

" _Of course, sir_ ," JARVIS replied.

The next part was an interview series that CBS had filmed in late 1944 with all the Commandos and several of the SSR brass. Everyone got their time in front of the camera. Dum Dum's interview had them all grinning with his blunt sarcasm, and Steve's stumbling and painfully earnest answers had Sam, Tony, and Clint snickering.

The last interviewee turned out to be Bucky. A few moments in, Steve's mood soured again. The time stamp on the film was in early December 1944, around three weeks before they'd left to capture Zola's train. The room fell still again, but it was different than it had been with Peggy. Barnes was there with them...although the Barnes on screen was the last evidence of what he'd been before HYDRA took him.

Bucky's cool metal shoulder leaned against Steve, but he pointedly kept his eyes on the show. Steve got the message. It was ancient history. Even if it really wasn't.

The sound was scratchy, and the interviewer's questions couldn't be heard, just Bucky's answers.

" _No, no, no, he was_ —" The grainy black-and-white Bucky smiled fondly. " _First time I met Steve, he was staring down these neighborhood bullies. There were three of 'em, all had to be twice Steve's size...everybody ran away from these guys, but not Rogers. He came out of it with a black eye and a bloody nose, but right then and there I knew this was someone I wanted as a friend_."

The next question had Bucky frowning. " _Captain America is a_ comic book character _. You don't follow comic books into a war. I'll follow Steve Rogers to hell and back_..."

Steve glanced over at Bucky. His friend _had_ gone to hell and back...only he'd done it alone. Bucky seemed to feel his gaze, and spoke softly, so that only Steve could hear. "And I'd do it again."

The next question seemed to be about where the Commandos would go after Hitler was defeated.

" _Where? Oh, I don't know. The Pacific I guess. If that's still going on by then_." He shrugged with a sardonic expression. " _We'll be the last to know, trust me. But, wherever they send Steve, I'll be right there with him_."

The video footage switched to silent B-roll after that. Steve recognized part of it from the film-loop in the museum. He and Bucky on screen, Gabe behind the camera, telling a joke that had them cracking up. Steve smiled a little at that.

The other Avengers were silent. They all knew where the rest of the story went from there. Two months later, Steve would be in the ice and Bucky in some God-forsaken HYDRA camp in Eastern Europe. The silence wasn't uncomfortable; everyone just seemed unsure of what to say.

The silence was broken when Bucky's arm whirred to life, as he draped it over Steve's shoulders. He pointed at the screen and spoke loudly. "Look how _young_ we were Stevie!"

A ripple of laughter spread across the room. Barton spoke up, grinning. "How do you keep your good looks?"

A smile broke on Steve's face. "Well, you know, clean living, eat well, try to avoid bad language...long naps."

The somber spell broke, and the others were laughing again.

"Who's going to start Happy Birthday?" Pepper called out. Darcy volunteered Thor, who looked perplexed, so Tony and Rhodey nominated Sam.

What followed was the most out of tune rendition of the song that Steve had ever heard.

 **CAP WS CAP WS CAP WS**

"I'm full," Bucky proclaimed, dropping heavily onto the couch in Steve's suite. "Do you realize how long it's been since I've been really _full_? I couldn't eat another bite."

Steve smiled. "1931?"

"I was a growing boy," Bucky sneered. "Wise ass."

The party had last until well past three in the morning. A massive intake of calories—and a substantial portion of the vintage 500-year old ale Thor had brought along for the occasion—had loosened Bucky's tongue. He hadn't stopped talking since they came upstairs.

It was like old times.

Steve huffed a silent laugh. Once, not long ago, he wouldn't have dared dream about a day that he and Bucky Barnes could refer to like that. He sat next to Bucky with a sigh.

Barnes looked over at him with a furrowed brow. "What?"

"Nothing," Steve shrugged. "I don't like it when you go after HYDRA alone."

"Don't get maudlin on your birthday, Rogers."

"It's my party, I'll cry if I want to," Steve shot back. Bucky frowned at him. "I heard it on TV the other day."

Bucky nodded in understanding. "I'm all caught up on NCIS. I need to find something else to watch."

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes.

"I am very good at going after HYDRA alone," Bucky said haughtily, flashing a smug smile. It was another vestige of the old Bucky that had been appearing more frequently in recent months. "Besides, I really wasn't. Nat was there."

"It's still dangerous."

Bucky waved that away. "Nikolai is only dangerous when he's in front of a computer. Not so much when he's caught in his boxer shorts watching that...pony cartoon. Whatever it is."

Steve raised his eyebrows questioningly.

"Nat wouldn't explain it," Barnes said in frustration. "What the hell is a Brony?"

"Beats me."

"Well, whatever it was, he didn't want us to know about it."

"You think he can help us get at Zola?"

"He will, or we'll pay him another visit."

Steve grinned. "You scared the hell out of him, didn't you?"

Bucky shot him a "who me?" look, which Steve didn't buy for one second. He had a way of getting what he wanted out of people like Nikolai. It had helped save Steve's life more than once.

Yawning, Bucky draped his cybernetic arm over Steve's shoulders. He gestured with mock impatience. "Open your present, I want to go to bed."

Grabbing it off the end table, Steve gently tugged the wrapping paper open and pulled out a dusty, well-worn brown box. He arched an eyebrow at Bucky, who motioned for him to continue. Opening the box, Steve peered inside, and his mouth dropped open.

"My God...Bucky where did you...?"

Inside the box, nested in aged black velvet, was a gold ring topped with an impressive diamond. It was the ring Steve had been given in Lyon, and he had thought had been long lost with Bucky in 1944.

Barnes looked exceptionally pleased with himself as he explained. "I've been racking my brain for months. Could not remember what I did with this thing, until a few weeks ago. I had a little flashback while we were in Lithuania." At Steve's look, he added. "It wasn't bad. Just occurred to me where I stashed it. You remember our living quarters at the S.S.R.?"

Steve nodded.

"We stopped in London on the way back. Turns out the old HQ is a war museum now. Nat and I took the tour, and I slipped away while they were showing the group Howard's workshop. There was a loose brick behind our lockers, covered a hole in the wall, and I remembered hiding the ring in that right before we left for Austria. I didn't want it to get lost." He shrugged. "Didn't count on me being the one getting lost."

Steve stared at the ring. He'd planned on offering it to Peggy once the war was over. He'd had the whole thing planned out, how and where he'd ask, what they'd do when they got back to New York...

He swiped at his eyes as his vision blurred. "I don't know what to say, Buck."

The metal arm tightened around his shoulders. "You could say 'you're such a good friend Bucky,' or 'you have impeccable taste,' or 'I couldn't make it through the day—"

" _Thank you_ , Buck. This is...this is amazing."

Bucky smiled and reclined back on the couch, propping his free arm behind his head. "I know I am."

Steve laughed. "God, you're such a jerk."

Bucky's eyes were already shut. He'd probably sleep right there on the couch. "Happy birthday, Stevie."

END

A/N: _Walter Huston narrated several of Frank Capra's famous "Why We Fight" films during WWII._

 _The CBS interview idea was based on two episodes of M*A*S*H that were filmed in interview/documentary style. I thought it'd be cool if the Commandos had been given the same treatment_.


End file.
